Homemade healthy gummies

January 6, 2014

I’ve been reading a lot lately about the good stuff in natural unflavored gelatin. It’s anti-aging, good for joints, good for your hair, good for your nails, and good for your digestion. Good gelatin comes from beef bones, and all these benefits are why I try to make a big pot of bone broth every week or two.

But when I heard you could also get a lot of this benefit by making treats with healthy gelatin, I was really interested in trying it. I’m sure that my grandbabies would be interested in yummy chewy homemade gummies and I was pretty sure at least a few of my kids would be game to try them as well. So I ordered a batch of Great Lakes unflavored gelatin and got this cute Wilton Silicone 24-Cavity Gingerbread Boy Mold as well. (They look kinda like gummy bears, right?) When the mold arrived, I was surprised at how big the cavities were. The ‘gummies’ they make are about 1.5 inches long, not the diminutive things I’m used to buying in bulk at Winco.

This recipe made enough to totally fill the mold shown. I poured the remainder into a small flat-bottomed bowl. Once the gelatin had set up, we first tested what I’d poured into the bowl. It clung to the sides and did not come out smoothly. I started wondering if the more complicated little shapes would even come out of the mold.

But lo and behold, they came out absolutely beautifully. The tops of the gummies look a little bumpy, because I left the little ‘feathers’ from the fresh-squeezed lemon juice in the liquid. But other side of each gummy was smooth like you usually see.

Since I was aiming for sour gummies, I used only a little honey, which did indeed make them quite sour. However, most of my kids liked them and both of my 1-year-old grandsons gobbled them down and asked for more. I think they were a hit.

I have two more molds coming soon in the mail (this is fun!!) and am planning to color my next batch with raspberry juice instead of artificial color.

If you’d like to read more about the benefits of healthy gelatin to the digestive tract, check out this post by Comfy Tummy.

I tried to send through a link to another recipe – not sure it worked. It used berries and lemon juice only in addition to the gelatin. I will keep altering the recipe to find a flavor combo I really like. I would like to better disguise the gelatin beefy flavor! (could be my pregnant taste buds though as Dom liked them okay…)

Made these this weekend! I used hormemade elderberry syrup for the water. I LOVE this and will do it as long as I can. No more purple syrup stains everywhere…just pop a gummy in their mouth and they’re done taking their elderberry!